1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the fields of medical technology and information technology and in particular concerns the provision to a client of image data that have been acquired by means of imaging methods, in particular provision of thin slice image data and thick slice image data obtained by a radiological apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In principle, image data are acquired by means of a detector of an imaging modality (for example a computed tomography apparatus) and are subsequently relayed to a computer associated with the modality for post-processing and, when necessary, for further processing. Depending on the required resolution for the images, thin slice image data and thick slice image data are differentiated. The scan of a specific body region (for example of the thorax) with a predetermined scan range and a determined overlap factor (overlap) generates, for example, a count of 30 thick slice image data and a count of 750 thin slice image data. From this example it is clear that the volume of the thin slice image data is higher by a multiple than the volume of the corresponding thick slice image data.
For making a finding (medical assessment) with respect to a patient, it is necessary that all acquired image data be considered, and thus displayed at a client of a server that is designed for this purpose.
It is known to use a system known as a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) in order to store acquired image data. In such conventional systems in use, only the thick slice data are directed via the PACS. The much more comprehensive thin slice image data are not recorded in the PACS, but instead are stored or buffered in a temporary cache. For further processing of these thin slice image data, it is a very significant disadvantage that, in conventional systems, this cache is in no way communicatively linked with an information system such as, for example, with a radiological information system (RIS) or a hospital information system (HIS).
If it becomes necessary in the context of the finding to access the data of a patient (in particular thick slice and thin slice image data), this is currently possible only by the user manually locating the storage location of such data in order to then download or to print out the image data from the user's computer. This procedure has proven to be very laborious and error-prone.